Creating in the Style of Ryan Travis Christian

The Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh is presently holding an exhibition of artworks by Ryan Travis Christian, entitled " Well, Here We Aren't Again." Christian is a Chicago-area artist who enjoys working with graphite and ink. In his work you can view abstract elements, comic characters, and cartoon iconography.

The students viewed his work and loved his use of graphite and ink, as well his use of cartoons. We decided to create our own compositions using black sharpies. Students created stencils of their favorite cartoon character and found a way to incorporate the image in their design. We were also free to incorporate our favorite images from Christian's work.

This project gave us the opportunity to review the concept of Line. We discussed how a  straight line tends to make our eyes run along its length. In analyzing Christian's design, we saw how horizontal lines tend to be calmer and vertical lines tend to be more bouncy and alive. In Christian's Xs, diagonal lines can move in and out of the picture plane more than horizontal or vertical ones. In Christian's work we saw how lines can be real or implied, thin or thick, straight or jagged. 

This student used the charactr of SpongeBob and the X-Men logo in his composition

He incorporated images from Christian's works: We're coming to poke you in the eye,  Infinitely Unrealized Comic Potential, and Noisy Neighbor

Ryan Travis Christian, We're coming to poke you in the eye

Using rulers to create a checker board design. 

The student incorporated the logo and symbols from the cartoon character Ben 10

Some of the imagery is taken from Christian's works Handlers, Noisy Neighbor  and Infinitely Unrealized Comic Potential

Ryan Travis Christian, Infinitely Unrealized Comic Potential

Scooby-Doo and Jerry (Tom and Jerry) were the chosen cartoon characters for this composition

We can see elements from Christian's works Noisy Neighbor, We're coming to poke you in the eye and Infinitely Unrealized Potential

Ryan Travis Christian, Noisy Neighbor 

The angry bird image together with the image of Ferb from the animated comedy Phineas and Ferb 

Ryan Travis Christian, Handlers

SpongeBob, Jerry and Mickey Mouse together with the images found in Christian's work Handlers, We're coming to poke you in the eye, and Infinitely Unrealized Comic Potential

Tom from the cartoon Tom and Jerry and Scooby-Doo are sharing the composition with

targets and the poking eyes and the Xs from Christian's works.

Students incorporated successfully the scribbles found in some of Christian's works

Students were successful  in using a variety of lines to create interesting compositions

Georgia O'Keeffe's Flowers

For this lesson we looked at the work of Georgia O'Keeffe. We discussed how she created large paintings of flowers, as if she wanted the viewer to see their beauty through a magnifying lens. She said: "I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty." The students looked at pictures of her work and they were amazed with the beauty of colors and lines. 

She also said: "When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not." 

We used water colors in order to create our large-scale flowers. Students were encouraged to use a variety of brushes and colors. 

The Raindrop of Alistair McClymont

The inspiration for this project is based on the work of the British sculptor Alistair McClymont. His work is now exhibited at Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) Everything we are capable of seeing

We looked at his work and were impressed how the artist uses a variety of machines to create natural phenomena. McClymont demonstrates the close connection of art and science. His artistic process is unique as he is using machines to create "tornadoes," night-time rainbows, and suspended raindrops in mid-air.

He writes: "My artwork is a continuing process of discovery and experimentation. Each piece follows the last in a continual journey of investigation into cultural and physical phenomena. The work is underlined by a search for what it is to be human. This might be our position in time and space on a grand scale, or singular observations on subjects that fascinate me. Each piece takes a small subject and breaks it down into something understandable and perhaps beautiful."

For our interpretation of the raindrop we decided to create a frozen one.

We filled small balloons with water and a drop or two of liquid color and placed the balloons in the freezer overnight. The next day we cut off the latex, and voila! We have created colorful frozen water drops.  

Alistair McClymont: Raindrop

I took a picture of the machine that allows the water drop to suspend in mid-air

The artist considers the process used to create his works more important than the actual finished product.

The artist took photographs of the raindrop

We created frozen water drops by freezing the water balloons.

We could see the smaller water drops frozen within the large mass of ice.  

We decided to use the frozen water drops to create colorful compositions
Students applied the water colors directly out of the tube and into their water color paper

We used our frozen rain drops in place of a brush to blend the colors

Frozen hands in a action

We discussed the properties of water
Connecting science to art was part of this project

Student comment: " I made a rainbow just like Mr. McClymont."